<h4>Chapter 1148: Chapter 1148</h4>
Jude closed his eyes. In the darkness behind his eyelids, he saw Rose’s face, softer, younger. Before the smile had changed. Before the river. Before the bones. Her lips had pressed to his that night, cold and warm at once, full of promises she hadn’t said aloud.
What if she’s still in there? he wondered.
The thought struck him deep.
But he couldn’t let it weaken him.
The moment the watcher stone’s glow pulsed again, Sophie stood. "She’lle to the river. That’s where she first changed."
"She’ll want to finish what she started," Zoey said.
They moved fast this time. Silent but focused. No more running. This was hunting.
By the time they reached the river’s edge, the sun had set again. The water glistened silver under the cloud-covered sky. Something shimmered near the shore, a line of stones arranged in a spiral pattern leading down into the river.
"She’s here," Emma whispered.
"She wants you to follow," Lucy said.
Jude stepped forward, but Sophie grabbed his wrist.
"No," she said. "Not alone."
Zoey stood beside her. "She wants to separate us. Like before."
"Then we go together," Jude said.
One by one, they entered the river.
The water was cold but not biting. The stones beneath their feet felt too smooth, too deliberate. The spiral deepened, leading into a shallow cave half-submerged beneath the bank.
And there she was.
Rose.
Waiting.
Her dress clung to her skin, soaked and dark. Her hair floated around her like a veil. Her eyes no longer glowed, but they were too deep, too wide, like a well that had no bottom.
"Jude," she said softly.
He stepped forward.
Sophie and the others followed.
Rose smiled. Not wicked. Not devilish. Just tired. Hollow. "I’m sorry," she whispered.
"You can stille back," Jude said.
"I can’t," she replied. "She’s not inside me anymore, Jude. She is me."
He froze.
Sophie reached for her de.
But Rose raised her hand, not in threat, but in silence.
"She’s waking now. She’s using me to open something. The others... they’lle again. Even the ones you saved. She’s in all of us now. And you..."
Her eyes locked on his.
"You have to make a choice."
The cave shook slightly.
Beneath their feet, the spiral of stones began to glow.
And in the water behind Rose, something massive stirred.
The ripple behind Rose widened.
It didn’t ssh. It didn’t surge. It simply unfolded, like the river itself was peeling open, revealing something beneath its surface that had always been there, waiting. Water shimmered like stretched ss, and from its depth, something dark began to rise. Not a shape. Not yet. Just presence. Immense. Silent. Watching.
Jude took a step forward instinctively, chest tight, breath shallow.
Rose turned her face slightly toward the water, eyes closed, and whispered, "She’s listening."
Sophie grabbed his wrist again, harder this time. "Don’t go near her."
But Jude couldn’t take his eyes off Rose. She looked different now, not possessed, not empty, but full of something ancient. Her voice, even when quiet, vibrated in his chest. The part of him that remembered their nights together, herugh against his neck, the way she used to hold him like she knew she’d never let go, that part ached.
"Rose," he said, barely more than a breath. "If there’s anything left of you, step away."
She opened her eyes.
For a moment, they were just hers again, blue and soft and storm-tossed.
"I remember everything," she whispered. "I remember loving you."
Then her gaze dropped to his chest, her face twisting, not in pain, but in reverence.
"She remembers, too."
The thing in the water moved again.
This time it had shape. It didn’t rise like a creature. It unfolded, long, pale limbs sliding through the current without discing it. Fingers, or something like fingers, drifted up through the surface like drifting seaweed. They touched nothing, but the spiral of glowing stones brightened with every inch.
Sophie moved in front of Jude, cing herself between him and Rose.
"This ends now."
"No," Rose whispered. "This begins now."
Zoey gasped behind them. "The others, "
They all turned at once.
Grace stood on the far bank of the river. So did La, Natalie, Scarlet, and Susan. They were spaced perfectly apart, hands at their sides, faces serene. Each of them held something, a piece of the structure from the bone altar. Skull. Rib. Vertebrae. Root.
"They’repleting the circle," Emma said, already unsheathing her de.
"No," Lucy whispered. "They are the circle."
Sophie reached for Jude’s hand. "We stop them. All of them. Now."
But the moment they moved, Rose stepped into the glowing spiral.
And vanished.
The river lit up in a pulse of light that forced them all to shield their eyes. It wasn’t blinding, it was pure. Clean. Ageless. The ind’s heartbeat, exposed.
And when it dimmed again, she was gone.
No trace of Rose.
Just the spiral of stones, still glowing. And the others... silent. Watching.
Jude looked around, eyes wild. "Where did she go?!"
"She’s inside it now," Zoey said, trembling. "Inside the ind."
Sophie turned, breathing hard. "Then we go after her."
Lucy blinked. "Go... into that?"
Ste spoke up, her voice unsteady but certain. "She wants us to follow."
Sophie looked at Jude, and Jude looked at the water.
The spiral shimmered faintly.
Then, one by one, the other corrupted wives began stepping into the river.
Grace.
Natalie.
Susan.
Scarlet.
La.
Each entered the water slowly, without hesitation, forming a circle around the spiral. Their bodies did not dissolve. They did not vanish. But their faces tilted upward, their mouths parting in soundless song.
The watcher’s light flickered across the surface one more time.
And then the water opened. Not like a hole. Not like a trap.
Like a doorway.
Jude stared into it and saw not darkness, but memory.
The first moment he stepped on the ind.
Rose’s lips on his.
Laughter echoing in the trees.
Twelve hearts beating like one.